Image receiving materials have been used in various image forming processes, which comprises pressing or heating an image recording material on an image receiving material to transfer an image from the recording material to the receiving material. The pressing or heating procedures can be easily handled.
Examples of the processes using the image receiving materials include a pressure sensitive copying process, an electrophotography, a thermal image transfer process, a heat sublimate process and various light-sensitive image forming processes. The photosensors of the light-sensitive image forming processes include a photopolymerization initiator, a photodecomposition resin and silver halide. Processes using a photopolymerization initiator are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,440,846 (Sanders et al.) and 4,483,912 (Sanders). Processes using silver halide are U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,676 (Hayakawa et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,912,011 (Yamamoto et al.).
The process using silver halide comprises the steps of imagewise exposing to light a light-sensitive material; heating the light-sensitive material to develop silver halide; and pressing the light-sensitive material on the image receiving material to form a color image on the image receiving material. The light-sensitive material comprises a support and a light-sensitive layer in which light-sensitive microcapsules are dispersed. The light-sensitive microcapsules contain silver halide, a reducing agent, an ethylenically unsaturated polymerizable compound and a color image forming substance. At the heat development, the polymerizable compound is usually hardened within the area where the latent image of silver halide has been formed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,040 (Takeda) discloses another image forming process in which the polymerizable compound is hardened within the area where a latent image has not been formed.
With respect to the process using a photopolymerization initiator, U.S. Pat. No. 4,554,235 (Adair et al.) discloses a specific image receiving material. The image receiving material comprises a support, an image receiving layer and a discontinuous layer of a thermoplastic polymeric pigment. After an image is transferred to the image receiving material, the material is heated to form a thin essentially transparent polymeric film made from the thermoplastic polymeric pigment on the transferred image.
With respect to the process using silver halide, U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,932 (Nakamura et al.) discloses another specific image receiving material. The image receiving material comprises a support and an image receiving layer containing a granulated thermoplastic compound. After an image is transferred to the image receiving material, the material is heated to obtain a glossy or transparent image contained in a film made from the thermoplastic compound.
Using the image receiving materials disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,554,235 and 4,772,532, a glossy image can be obtained if the supports of the image receiving materials are opaque. If the supports are transparent, a transparent image can be obtained. The particles of the thermoplastic compound have another function of forming a porous surface on the image receiving layer. The pores increase the color density of the transferred image because they increase the amount of the transferred color image forming substance.